Sauron's fatal mistake

He took all that sweet juicy power, and forged it into... a ring? Why exactly? I'd like to see Tolkien explain that in under 200 words. Couldn't he just have kept the sweet juicy power and used it to do sweet juicy things? (ie. the exact same things he was going to do when he got the ring back) I mean did the guy just think "Hmm, instead of harnessing this power that I have and no-one can take away, I'll slap it all into a ring so I can lose it at the first sign of an ambitious swordsman." And why a ring exactly? Did he want to impress his ex-wife or something? Why not something a little more inaccessible, something that no-one else is going to use, like the Jockstrap of Power? He could've even had some fun with that, like tempting his scumbag minions to snap his undies, and then in return smiting them with all the wrath of its imbued power.

I mean, in ring form, he could lose it (which he did), and some fourth rate hobbit could pick it up and keep it (which he did), lose it to a third rate hobbit (which he did), who in turn gives it over to a second rate hobbit (which he did) who proceeded to destroy Sauron utterly with the help of some walking trees (which he did). Sauron must've been blind not to see this coming!

If he had gone the jockstrap option, the fourth rate hobbit would've found it, tried it on, sniffed it a little, complained that it chafed, and thrown in back in the river. Then everyone would've been happy (except the smoten hobbit fisherman who found it and turned it in, expecting a reward, the smoten orcs who laughed at Sauron for writing contact details on his underpants, the smoten Middle Earth who felt the wrath of a fully underpants-laden Sauron, and Sauron, still stinging from the cruel remarks of the now smoten orcs).

- Originally appeared on www.nightly.net/lotr